After 30 years of bumping and lurching down secondary highways, Brent Jacobson has finally discovered a smooth ride.
“It kind of floats down the road,” said Jacobson of his eight-axle B-train equipped with tire pressure control technology.
When he heads off a main highway onto a secondary road Jacobson reduces his speed to 80 km-h and pokes a button in the cab that partially deflates his tires.
With a full load the pressure is reduced to 50 psi for the trailer tires and 55 psi for the tractor tires. Only the tires on the steering axle remain at full pressure. When Jacobson gets back on a main highway he reinflates all the tires back to 85 psi and increases his speed. A system of air hoses pumps all 28 tires on the fly, in just five minutes.
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This tire pressure technology pioneered by the American military decades ago eliminates washboard and ruts.
“It’s much easier on the driver and the equipment,” said Jacobson, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s lead driver.
It’s also easier on the roads. The department of highways and transportation already has agreements in place with Federated Co-operatives Ltd., as well as mining and forestry companies. This pilot project with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool is the first foray for the grain industry.
Now B-trains are only allowed to haul 34 tonnes of grain on secondary roads. Once an agreement is signed, the province will allow trucks equipped with the tire pressure system to haul a full load of 42 tonnes on secondary roads.
Mike Woods, director of communications with the department of highways and transportation, points out the permits will only apply to grain that’s now being moved on the road system.
“This doesn’t reflect any transfer from rail to road at all,” said Woods.
Half of the savings generated by the trucks will go back to the province, earmarked for road repair.
Trenton Baisley, Sask Pool’s manager of transportation, anticipates savings of about $2 per tonne of grain hauled. He said the pool trucks about three million tonnes of grain per year. Once an agreement is signed the pool will convert as much tonnage as it can to the new technology, said Baisley.
So far just one of the pool’s fleet of six B-trains has been outfitted with the TPC technology. The plan is to convert the entire fleet and to work out arrangements with commercial truckers as well, said Baisley.
The pool has already signed the agreement, which should be finalized sometime this fall.
